International Journal of Business and Administrative Studiesvolume 5 issue 4 pp. 186-198 doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.20469/ijbas.5.10002-4

The Effect of Expected and Perceived Service Quality on CustomerSatisfaction: Optical Retail in Indonesia

Sarah Salsabila Hartono∗University of Hull, Hull, UK

Abstract: Optical retail is unique because they sell product and service at once. The creation of excellent service willlead to a satisfied customer. Hence many retailers are unconscious about the importance of service quality that turnsthe industry to struggle in finding the right customer wants and need on a service activity that can be performed togain customer satisfaction. Thus, it raises questions on the effect of service quality variables on the overall satisfactionof optical retail costumes in Indonesia. The three variables on SERVQUAL measurement were used to find the gapbetween clients’ expectations and perception towards service quality. Using mixed methods, a total of 179 questionnairerespondents are used to find the gap analysis. Then, ten telephone interviews were conducted to investigate theimportance of service quality and customer satisfaction in Optical retail. The result confirmed that the responsivenessdimension has positive relation while assurance and reliability dimensions have negative relations with customer satis-faction. No matter the result of the gap, the customer describes they feel satisfied with the service. Solely identifyingthe importance of each service is not enough to uncover customer satisfaction; knowing the roles of product quality isalso important in this industry. The findings provide specific data that contribute to monitor and maintain quality service.

Keywords: Customer satisfaction, mixed service and merchandise business, service quality, optical retail

Received: 15 May 2019; Accepted: 23 July 2019; Published: 26 August 2019

INTRODUCTIONStatement of the Problems

In expanding the market in the retail service industry, quality is generally regarded as one of the key factorinfluencing customer satisfaction. Customers are satisfied when they are happy with the purchase outcome, completetheir goals, and have experienced no problem (Paul, Mittal, & Srivastav, 2016). For a service business such as opticalretail, customer satisfaction is considered as one of the strongest aspects in maintaining the business. Optical retail isunique because it’s selling both product and service at the same time. But in terms of services, excellent service willpay off due to the creation of faithful customers (Parasuraman, Berry, & Zeithaml, 1991). Thus, to improve servicequality, the optical industry has an urge to investigate the expected quality that customers desire and perceived qualitythat customer achieves toward service quality.

Further, the founder of Vision Express has stated that many of the optical retail have not been aware on theimportance of customer satisfaction as he used to be disappointed with the service quality (Grundy, 2015). Servicequality is recognized as a significant factor responsible for gaining competitive advantage and maintaining a satisfactoryrelationship with customers (Zeithaml, Berry, & Parasuraman, 1993). Different from another consumer generation,modern consumer has so much choice, customer service and convenience have the biggest effect to drive customer

∗Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Sarah Salsabila Hartono, University of Hull, Hull, UK. E-mail:sarah.salsabila@sbm-itb.ac.id

c© 2019 The Author(s). Published by KKG Publications. This is an Open Access article distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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retention, with providing complete quality service for one of the variables that have developed into expectation(Ecp.essilor.co.uk, n.d.). In Indonesia, optical retail is considered as a steadily growing market. But, the industry isstruggling to find the right customer want and need on services activity that can be performed to get the satisfaction ofthe customer in the market since the demands are always changing.

In past years, there has been a big challenge for retailers in the form of intensified competition, slow growth marketand more demanding consumers (Bloemer & Odekerken-Schröder, 2002). As the globalization has increased, some ofthe customers will be more educated about their optical options. They would know whether the industry is not givingthem what they want. That’s why it’s essential to be aware of the changing on customer demand. The paper aims tosearch the effect of Expected and Perceived Service Quality to Customer Satisfaction in Optical Retail specifically inIndonesia. This raises a question on how to explores the effect of service quality variables on the overall satisfaction ofcustomers. Also, the gap between perceived and expected service quality using SERVQUAL. This method used todetermine whether differences between scores to measure the gap between expectation and perception. While studyingthe literature, it was found that there is not much research in the optical retail industry. Most research is only focusedon more complicated theories structures about the perceived and expected service quality. Therefore, the inquiries wantto research the impact of quality service on optical retail customer satisfaction. The findings provide specific data thatcontribute to monitor and maintain quality service.

Objectives1) To find the dimension of SERVQUAL (assurance, reliability, responsiveness) effect on customer satisfaction.2) To determine gap between expected and perceived services experienced by customers in the optical retail

industry.3) To find the gap between expected and service quality (SERVQUAL) contribute to the level of customer satisfaction

in the optical retail industry.

Significance of the StudyThis research addressed from the customer perspective who has experienced the service of the optical industry in

Indonesia. Also by looking at the influence of previous service process to the changing of expectations. The researchshould be able to get a picture of the problem occurring from customer desire. From this individual approach foundwhat that importance in customer perspective to find which service strategy in the system makes the highest impact oncustomer satisfaction. The researchers adopt the SERVQUAL model for the research design. Firstly, using SERVQUALmodel, by examined significant differences in the 3 of 5 service quality dimensions (Reliability, Responsiveness, andAssurance) by evaluating customer expectation and their actual perceptions of the optical industry services. Secondly,the writer examined the impact by measuring the gap of expected and perceived service quality of the used SERVQUALdimension to customer satisfaction.

Scope of the StudyThe data collection methods chosen are a mixed approach in that questionnaire, and interviews data are collected.

A self-completed internet-based questionnaire is used where we collect the measured ordinal gap between the expectedand perceived service quality within three dimensions. The sample size that is used are people who are the customerof optical retail who has experienced the form of services provided by one or more optical retailers in with 179correspondents and done between March and April 2019. Then, to measure the impact to customer satisfaction, weadopt inductive approach interviews where we find the subjective interpretation of the various actors on the samesubject (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2016), while in this case the items are selected customers of the optical industry.The demography of the sample that used are people who live in the Asia Pacific especially in Indonesia.

LITERATURE REVIEWService quality is one of the favourite topics in service marketing, the definition of it also varies from each researcher

according to the situation. There are lots of studies that confirmed the positive relationship within profits, such as;Anderson, Fornell, and Lehmann (1994) and Rust and Oliver (1994) with raised market share and future purchaseintention, and customer satisfaction. There is a tremendous amount of research has been conducted in the serviceindustry. But unfortunately, there is still a little research on the issues of combined product and service industry.

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However, there is limited knowledge about issues that optical retailers facing regarding service quality especiallyin Indonesia. Thus, this research will try to measure service quality using SERVQUAL dimension. Parasuramanet al. (1991) describe a perfect service comes if perceived experience exceeds customers expectations. Moreover,Satisfying customers is one-desired main objectives of every business. McColl-Kennedy and Schneider (2000) andReichheld and Sasser (1990) highlight the importance of customer satisfaction for business success. It begins with cleardefinitions between the customers and optical retailers. For example, if a customer and the business requirement isfor customer service, the satisfaction dimensions will include interactions, timeliness, and responsiveness. These arethe arrays that define the conditions (Baker, Hayes, & Fortier, 1998; Na Ayutthaya, Tuntivivat, & Prasertsin, 2016;Pandiangan & Tua Sitorus, 2017). In the retail industry, service quality has a significant difference. Finn (2004) statesthe uniqueness relies on the nature of retail services which the improvement and measurement of quality in retailingcannot be approached in the same way as services perspective. Although, Dabholkar, Thorpe, and Rentz (1996) impliessome measurement indicators for pure service and retail are likely to share standard dimensions. It is necessary tolook at the quality from the perspective of service provided as well as the products and derives a set of items that canaccurately measure this construct in retail service (Abdurrahaman & Osman, 2017; Jiang, Zhang, Xiao, Ren, & Chen,2017; Mehta & Li Han, 2000). There is a lack of suggestion on how the characteristics may be combined into a fewcritical dimensions of retail service quality. Moreover, the theoretical support provided by the retail literature for factorstructure, the examination on some literature was organized to find factors for retail service quality, especially in theoptical industry.

Service Quality in RetailParasuraman et al. (1991) proposed a service quality measurement known as SERVQUAL. This scale calculates the

difference between expectation and perceptions or known as ‘gap’ to find related customer satisfaction. By evaluating the22 items that represent five service quality dimensions known as ‘tangibles’, ‘reliability’, ‘responsiveness’, ‘assurance’and ‘empathy’. Various studies have been conducted using SERVQUAL. Such as Carman (1990) tested the method inpure settings (dental school patient clinic, business school placement centre, acute care hospital), except in tire storewhere a retailer is offering a mix of merchandise and service.

In the research, Carman (1990) found nine factors of service quality, concluding five dimensions classified by(Parasuraman et al., 1991) were not convenient and suggested for the further paper to adapt by adding elements assuitable for different situations. Hence, Dabholkar et al. (1996) argue that it has not been successfully changed to andvalidated in a retail store environment.

Regarding this research, The essential issues here rely on when expectation change and experiences with differentservice providers shape the customers’ expectations. The gap occurs when disparity exists between customers perceptionof firm performance and their prior expectation. Service Quality (SQ) perceived by the customer. Therefore as aresult of customer expectation (E) of a business service versus their perception of the performance (P) delivered by thecompany. Hence if the gap is positive, customers are considered satisfied, while otherwise, if the gap is negative, thecustomer is considered dissatisfied.

Service Quality (SQ) = Customer’s Perception (P) - Customer’s Expectation (E)On finding the expected and perceived service quality effect to customer satisfaction, the SERVQUAL scale is more

preferable due to its superior diagnostic power with the addition of intervention by the service system of the opticalretail industry. However, the issues regarding the method are that it requires a gigantic data collection task and withthe use of a lengthy questionnaire (Naik, Gantasala, & Prabhakar, 2010). Hence, it is needed to collect data aboutcustomer expectation as well as perceptions of the optical industry performance on each of the 22 service quality scaleattributes. Thus in the optical retail context, perception of service gathered over time, and a customer’s relationshipwith an organization are an accumulation of service interactions both past and present. When customers evaluate retailservice, they will compare their perceptions of the service they receive with their expectation (Naik et al., 2010).

Measuring Service Quality–SERVQUAL ModelBateson (1995) declare that measuring service quality is arduous because of its unique characteristics: Intangibility,

heterogeneity, inseparability, and perishability. Thus, one preeminent input has been made by (Parasuraman et al.,1991) to provide a precise definition of service quality. They describe it as ‘a global judgement, or attitude relating tosuperiority of service’. Based on this concept, (Parasuraman et al., 1991; Piyachat, 2017) proposed a service quality

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measurement known as SERVQUAL. This scale calculates the difference between expectation and perceptions tofind related customer satisfaction. By evaluating the 22 items that represent five service quality dimensions known as‘tangibles’, ‘reliability’, ‘responsiveness’, ‘assurance’ and ‘empathy’. The SERVQUAL scale has formed an importantlandmark in the service quality literature and has applied in different service settings.

In SERVQUAL, both service performance and consumer expectations of particular store service are explicitlymeasured to assess the ‘gap’. Following Figure 1, this research is trying to solve Gap 5. The fifth gap is the divergencebetween customer expectation and perceptions of the service delivered. This gap occurs as a conclusion influencesapply from the side of customer and shortage of the service provider. Paul et al. (2016) mentioned for the fifth gap,past service experiences, word of mouth recommendation, and personal needs are influencing customer expectations.Several researchers find the performance perceptions to be sufficient in assessing service quality as compared to the gap(Carman, 1990).

Figure 1 Gap Model by Parasuraman (Source: (Parasuraman et al., 1991))

Various studies have been conducted using SERVQUAL. For this research, the SERVQUAL scale is more preferabledue to its superior diagnostic power with the addition of intervention by the service system of the optical retail industry.However, the issues regarding the method are that it requires a gigantic data collection task and with the use of a lengthyquestionnaire (Naik et al., 2010). Hence, it is needed to collect data about customer expectation as well as perceptionsof the optical industry performance on each of the 22 service quality scale attributes.

Customer Satisfaction

Satisfying customers is one-desired main objectives of every business. McColl-Kennedy and Schneider (2000) andReichheld and Sasser (1990) highlight the importance of customer satisfaction for business success. The customersatisfaction requirement is different in each service businesses, all internally based processes components, standards,and criteria that a company strives to achieve (Naik et al., 2010). Whether meeting or exceeding the goals is oftenderided as an indicator of success or failure. For optical retailers, customer satisfaction believed as one variable todetect success. But the determinant of customer satisfaction itself is different for each industry. Here, the researchersassume the service quality dimension measured by SERVQUAL is having a prompt relationship with overall customersatisfaction.

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Theoretical FrameworkThe connection between retail service quality and customer satisfaction is the primary focus of this research.

Abu-El Samen, Akroush, and Abu-Lail (2013), Dahiyat, Akroush, and Abu-Lail (2011), Ladhari (2009), andSureshchandar, Rajendran, and Anantharaman (2002) all claimed that service quality was highly related and in-cluded as an important factor to customer satisfaction. From all variables of SERVQUAL, various research studiesconfirming service quality dimensions capture mixed results. Research in banking (Jamal & Naser, 2003) and RetailBanking (Baumann, Burton, Elliott, & Kehr, 2007) found that there is no significant connection between customersatisfaction and tangible aspects of service. While another industry reported that responsiveness and assurance arecritical in driving customer satisfaction (Mengi, 2009). Arasli, Mehtap-Smadi, and Turan Katircioglu (2005) stated thatreliability has the highest impact on customer satisfaction in Greek Cypriot banking industry. Further, Abu-El Samen etal. (2013) found within Jordan’s mobile service industry that reliability has the strongest effect on customer satisfactionon Automobile repair. While Naik et al. (2010) claimed that assurance and reliability have the highest score whiletangible has the lowest score to the retailing industry. Although the previous studies mentioned all insight into theissues of differences in finding the proper service quality dimension for each sector, some fundamental limitations mustbe explored.

Not all industry has the same findings on the application of 5 dimensions of SERVQUAL due to the importance ofservice is very in each business. The literature determinedly shows that there is no general agreement on the strengthsof each component to its effect on customer satisfaction. The study certainly appeals the necessity to identify servicequality attributes that can affect the higher customer satisfaction in specific service settings; it could help informs thebusiness itself on the areas where improvements are needed. Given previous literature, we choose only to use 3 of 5dimensions of SERVQUAL, which are assurance, reliability and responsiveness due to the higher relationship thantangible, and empathy in prior studies related to the similar business with the optical retail in Indonesia. Thus theproposed conceptual framework adapted from (Parasuraman et al., 1991) with some addition regarding the researchobjectives (Figure 2). For optical retail, Assurance described as the knowledge of product and services, and theirability to make the customer confidence while the service activities being conducted. While reliability is the ability ofthe optical industry service provider to execute the promised service to the expected and perceived customer servicequality and responsiveness is the readiness of optical retailer service provider to provide prompt service as expectedand perceived by the customer. Therefore, the writer proposes that There is a positive relationship between assurance,reliability, and responsiveness, to optical retail customer satisfaction.

Figure 2 Conceptual Framework of a Study (Source: Adapted from (Badruldin et al., 2012; Parasuraman et al., 1991))

RESEARCH METHODOLOGYBased on current literature, it is unambiguous that there is a gap in research field between expected and perceived

service quality at the customer satisfaction in Indonesian optical industry. By using Indonesia as a steadily high opticalgrowing market, this study hopefully makes a difference to the challenges within reaching customer satisfaction, whichhopefully can prove beneficial for many optical retailers.

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Research DesignThe primary purpose of this research is to determine the effect of expected and perceived service quality to see if

it have a relationship with customer satisfaction in Indonesia optical retail service quality. There are three particularresearch questions:

1. How the dimension of SERVQUAL (assurance, reliability, responsiveness) effect on customer satisfaction?2. Is there any gap between expected and perceived services experienced by customers in the optical retail industry?3. How the gap between expected and service quality (SERVQUAL) contribute to the level of customer satisfaction

in the optical retail industry?The researcher also looks at the influence of previous service process to the changing of expectations. The writer

should be able to get a picture of the problem occurring from customer desire. From this individual approach, weshould see what that importance in customer perspective to find which service strategy in the system makes the highestimpact on customer satisfaction.

Data CollectionThe data collection methods chosen are a mixed approach in that questionnaire and interviews data are collected. A

self-completed internet-based questionnaire is used where we collect the measured ordinal gap. The sample size that isused are people who are the customer of optical retail who has experienced the form of services provided by one ormore optical retailers, collected between March and April 2019 with 179 correspondents. Then, to measure the impactto customer satisfaction, we adopt inductive approach interviews where we find the subjective interpretation of thevarious actors on the same subject (Saunders et al., 2016), while in this case the items are selected customers of theoptical industry. The demography of the sample that used is people who live in the Asia Pacific especially in Indonesia.

The Questionnaire contained structured questions in three sections. The first section dealt with the respondentprofiles. The second section contained 13 items related to customer expectations and the third section filled by 13 piecesof customer perceptions. The items in both expectations and perceptions parts were grouped into three dimensions:reliability, responsiveness, and assurance. In this case, the researchers are spreading the questionnaire through socialmedia and online surveys to gain participants in Indonesia from the UK. The second data collection is gained throughinterview. It is using questions regarding customer satisfaction. Structured interviews were conducted to achieve anopen interpretation of the service quality effect on customer satisfaction. We can also get a reasonable answer to themethods of services that make people satisfied or unsatisfied the most. The operational variable used in this researchhas been modified to fit the service in the optical business.

Data AnalysisFor analysing the questionnaire, gap analysis is used to determine the level of customers’ expectation and perception

towards the service quality of the optical industry services. The Service Delivery Quality (SDQ) score for eachrespondent was calculated using formula as suggested by Zeithaml et al. (1993):

SDQ = P - ESDQ = Service delivery quality score for each dimension.P = Quality service perceived by the optical retail consumersE = Quality service expected by the optical retail consumersFor the qualitative analysis, the recorded interviews were transcribed. The authors followed the methodology of

(Poland, 2002) closely to manage the quality of the audiotape, directions provided to transcribers and the validity of thetranscription based on a review of the transcript. The transcribed interview was read to gain a sense of comprehensivedata. Meanwhile, the writer wrote short phrases, ideas, or keywords to assist later analysis. Then, they classified andelaborated concepts based on the gap analysis, the interviews, and the literature reviews. After the analysis, the contentmeaning was reduced to core concepts (Kvale, 2008). Once the person-by-person review was complete, the researcherfinds suitable answers that indicate the level of satisfaction of the customer in the optical industry.

FINDINGSQuestionnaire Finding

Questionnaires distributed to 179 respondent customers and the findings are tabulated in Table 1. The validity levelwas 0.942 for all 26-items, expected and perceived combined. It states that the data are reliable to be used for this

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research analysis.Table 2 shows that the highest expectation score of 4.6313 was attributed to “The optical retail will insist on

error-free records” requirement. On the other hand, the lowest expectation score of 3.6145 was attributed to “Employeein optical retail will never too busy to respond to customer request”. Then, the highest perception score of 4.4302 wasattributed to "When an optical retail promise to do something by a certain time, it does so". The lowest perceptionscore of 3.8324 was given to "Employees in optical retail never too busy to respond to customer request".

Table 1 DISTRIBUTION OF QUESTIONNAIRE DATA COLLECTION

Variables Frequency (n = 179) Percentage

Last Time Purchase in Optical Retail<3 Month 38 21.24-6 Month 32 17.96-12 Month 47 26.3More than a year 62 34.6Age18-23 164 91.624-30 9 5.031-40 3 1.741-50 3 1.7GenderMale 48 26.8Female 131 73.2EducationJunior High School 1 0.6High School 117 65.4Diploma 5 2.8Undergraduate 54 30.2Other 2 1.2OccupationState Official 1 0.6Private Company Employee 8 4.5Entrepreneur 13 7.3Student 144 80.4Doctor 2 1.1Other 11 6.1Spending at Optical RetailRp50,000-Rp999,999 93 52.0Rp1,000,000-1,999,000 33 18.4Rp2,000,000-Rp2,999,000 29 16.2Rp3,000,000-Rp3,999,000 13 7.3Rp4,000,000-Rp4,999,000 4 2.2Rp5,000,000-Rp5,999,000 5 2.8Rp6,000,000-Rp6,999,000 1 0.6<Rp7,000,000 1 0.6

The majority of the respondents gave higher expectation scores for the quality of service provided except for“Giving a prompt service to the customer” and “Speed of response to the complaint”. The gap analysis was used toreach the level of customers’ expectation and perception towards the service quality of the optical industry services. If

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the expectation is higher than perception, the score will be negative. A negative score express customers are not havingtheir expectations met by the service provider. On the other hand, a positive score is the result of a performance thatsurpasses customer expectations. It describes an area of strength and can present an image of competitive advantage forthe optical industry in Indonesia. Table 2 also shows the mean gap scores by service quality dimensions. It describesthat there are differences in the immensity of gap scores among the 13-items declaration of service quality. Bigger gapscore means more serious service quality deficiency from the perspective of service providers. The only dimension thathas positive values was Responsiveness with its 4-items with 0.0335. On the other hand, Reliability dimensions with5-items have negative values of -0.1620.

Table 2 SERVQUAL GAP ANALYSIS

Sub Variable Indicator Perceived Expectation Gap Scores Mean Gap RankMean Mean Score

Reliability Speed of service 4.4302 4.5140 -0.0838 -0.1620 2Sincere interest in solving prob-lem

4.2793 4.4246 -0.1453

Accuracy of transaction 4.3911 4.5140 -0.1229Accuracy of promises 4.3687 4.5922 -0.2235Assurance of error free records 4.3966 4.6313 -0.2346

Responsiveness Concern and desire for assisting 4.3520 4.4302 -0.0782 0.0335 1Giving a prompt service to cus-tomer

4.0838 3.9274 0.1564

Willing to help the customer 4.3352 4.4972 -0.1620Speed of response to complaint 3.8324 3.6145 0.2179

Assurance Staff attitude 4.2514 4.3966 -0.1453 -0.2151 3Concern of customers 4.2514 4.5140 -0.2626Security in transaction details 4.2682 4.5810 -0.3128Product knowledge 4.1620 4.3017 -0.1397

4.2617 4.3799 -0.1182

Then, the most underperforming dimensions, which were Assurance with its 4-items, had also negative values of-0.2151. It states that the most critical dimension of the optical industry was the assurance dimension. The respondents’perceptions level was highest for the reliability dimension (4.3732) and the lowest for the responsiveness dimension(4.1508). For expectation, respondents rated the highest expectation level on the reliability dimension (4.5352) and thelowest for the responsiveness dimension also (4.1173). Thus, in this study, it can be said that the optical service providerwas not generally meeting customers’ expectations. This shows that Optical Retail in Indonesia had not succeededto meet its customers’ expectations to its service quality. By examining the various SERVQUAL measurements, theOptical industry can assess the overall service quality as perceived by the customers to identify the key dimensions thatcan be improved.

Interviews SummaryAssurance to customer satisfaction: The respondents define assurance as concerning the customer needs, good staffattitudes and excellent product knowledge. Friendly, giving an honest review also offer added value to the serviceprovided. Respondent 7 said the detailed product knowledge makes her happy with the experience. She assured thatshe didn’t even know what is the problem with her eyes until the employee educates that to her. She states that it is alsobetter to have a check-up in the optical store rather than the hospital. It goes for Respondent 1 where: “For me, theywere good enough. I usually examine my eyes then measure my glasses sizes, then usually the employee recommendthe type of lens and frame that are good for me. They also offer the best product on trend and quality based on theirbrand.”

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For assurance, the outcomes might occur since staff attitudes and product knowledge have a massive contributionto defining customer perception. Body language of the service provider will also contribute to this dimension. Weinterpreted that informants referred to assurance as friendly, detailed, knowledgeable, giving an honest review, etc. it isagreed that assurance has an impact on customer satisfaction.Responsiveness to customer satisfaction: All respondents who participated in the telephone interview mentionedthe importance of willing to help the customers and how well they solve it for us. While finding the responsivenessresponses, the desire to assist also considered in influencing satisfaction. Several also believed that this is the mostvital part to be given by the service provider. Respondent 8 remarked that even the problem is quite unusual; they stillmanage to solve it:

"...I was into a slimmer frame model, but I have a minus 3 in my eyes. Due to my conditions, many optics said thatI wouldn’t be able to use a slimmer frame model. The service was particularly satisfying. The employee helps me tochoose the exact model that most suitable for me. I think the employee give me her best opinion but didn’t ask me tobuy the most expensive. . . "

Respondent 6 also described how the explanation of the employee guides her about her problem and how to solve it.Respondent 7 refers to the medical check-up that she needs to have and how the employee treated her:

"...They understand it because somehow medically they understand it, I always think that I have this sort of problem,but after I checked up, they tell me the right problem that I have. When I say something, they correct me. It was a goodconsultation. . . "

Based on the responsiveness dimension, the participants imply it as giving a prompt service to the customer, desireand willingness to help them. It could be defined as consulting the perfect model of frame and lens for the customerand giving them the right answer about their condition. Most customers highlighted their knowledge about their issuesis deficient, and when they go to optical retail. Therefore, we can conclude that the dimension contributes to customersatisfaction.Reliability to customer satisfaction: Among all factors describing the reliability dimension, speed of service moderatealmost all answers and play a significant role in defining customer satisfaction. For example: “Yes, I am satisfied. I wasgood because I can pick it up at the end of the day, just three hours of total all service waiting...”

Due to the answers, the complete service of getting an optical product could take about three day until a week.For this particular case, Reliability could be considered as an important factor to customer satisfaction, described byRespondent 3: "This far, I am not satisfied with the service because I don’t like the overall service due to the morestories I needed to tell you about my problem. I also go to this only because they can finish my eyewear faster."

The total experience is not satisfied, but he repeatedly went to the same optic due to its fast service. The next factoris the assurance of error-free records. An unsatisfied respondent due to the product error could lead to a fatal for thecompany; either the company should repair or replace it with the new one.

Reliability dimension does play a significant factor in overall customer satisfaction. The reason comes from one ofthe elements in reliability, which is an assurance of error-free record. A promise from a service provider on claimingthe perfection of result can build up the expectation from the customer. If the expectation is higher, optical retail needsto shift its service quality to a better way.Overview to customer satisfaction: The findings have given an interesting insight into the relation between SERVQUALdimensions to customer satisfaction in the optical industry in Indonesia. The respondents defined the attributes of asatisfied customer are the one who experiences when the employee understand the right product and can give them theexplanation of their problem and what the best product suitable for them by giving them fast service with the rightproduct with a good price. 2 of 10 responses claimed as not satisfied with the service. 2 of 10 claimed neutral andfeel nothing special about the service experience. 5 of 10 rather feel satisfied with the service provided. And the lastone claimed that she is very satisfied with the service. On one of the experiences from a female respondent, she wasimpressed by the desire of the optical on assisting her to find the special lens. She claimed the lens was rather hard tofind but the optic still manages to find that in regular time. Due to the answers, the total service of getting an opticalproduct could take about three day until a week.

A different story about the accuracy of service time, Respondent 7 describe satisfaction with the delivery systemowned by the optic. She changed her eyewear lens at Jakarta branch but due to some reasons, she needs to go toBandung, it won’t be possible for her to take her eyewear in Jakarta branch. So the optic sends the product to theirBandung branch so she can take it there. It was so much easier for the consumer and there was no extra charge for

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that service she needs to add. It is proven that those who have a positive experience tend to be more satisfied with theservice quality. Respondent 7 refers to the medical check-up that she needs to have and how the employee treatedher. She implies that the employee understands her problem in a medical way, the diagnosis given by the serviceprovider was quite a good consultation. Then also, the appearance and staff attitude give a huge contribution to hercustomer satisfaction. And she adds: “I like the employee who helped me, he makes me feel like I don’t have to chooseeverything alone. Maybe if I know the person that checked my eyes was certified I will feel more assured. Theirappearance could be more appealing and trusted. Maybe adjust so it feels like more credible. Other than that the serviceis good.”

While the few respondents who have a negative experience are still claiming that they are satisfied with notes of nothaving difficulties with the product they get, even though not as satisfied with whom who has a positive experience withthe service. Like respondent 9 quotes: “After all, I feel satisfied with the service. When I choose the lens, it was a quiteunique experience. The employee was quite informative. He gave me a product catalogue that consists of details andexamples of that many products. Then he demonstrates the lens with Blu-ray to tell me the consistency of the product.He said that the product would not damage the eyes. It was very informative. But maybe because he is too old, he waskind cranky when giving me the service. But, I understand because maybe it was his character and it didn’t influencethe product result. . . .”

Although the majority of the participant responded that in general most of the interviewee was satisfied. Tworespondents complained not satisfied. The objects of their complaint:

• The needs to describe more about the problem that he particularly doesn’t understand.• The product error that she got after waiting for her eyewear for a week. She then needs to go to the same optic to

claim her reparation guarantee.

DISCUSSIONIn the result, the gap analysis in SERVQUAL implies that there are gaps between expected and perceived service

quality on three dimensions that used for the optical retail. The responsiveness dimension is the most imperative servicequality dimension of the optical industry in Indonesia followed by reliability and assurance. Nevertheless, it was foundthat the service quality in optical retail in Indonesia as perceived by its customers have failed to meet expectation intwo of three SERVQUAL dimensions. Only for the responsiveness dimension, the result shows that the optical industryhas reached the customer expectation and considered giving customer satisfaction. Gilbert and Wong (2003) imply thatnot every dimension are evenly crucial to consumers; the difference relies upon the type of service being examined(Jonsson Kvist & Klefsjö, 2006).

Given the degree of importance, we conclude that only the responsiveness dimension gives a positive relationto customer satisfaction. This equates with Baker et al. (1998) who said the satisfaction dimensions would includeinteractions, timeliness, and responsiveness while this is contrasting with the gap analysis result. We diagnose since the2 per 3 of the gap analysis result is negative; people would tend to be more not satisfied. In reality, the majority ofthe customer that interviewed are satisfied with the service that they get. The gap that existed between SERVQUALdimensions portrays that the customer doesn’t get what they expected, but they are happy and satisfied with the service.Its occur to the optical retail is a unique industry which has combined service and product inside the business.

However, the finding of this study didn’t correspond with (Parasuraman et al., 1991) who states that the threedimensions are the most critical dimension to customer satisfaction. Abu-El Samen et al. (2013) all claimed that servicequality was highly related and included as an essential factor to customer satisfaction. Also, after adopting Carman(1990) studies in tire store where it found that the type of business is similar on offering both merchandise and service, itis correlated with the Carman (1990) results. We analyze that there might some added items or factors besides servicesthat can lead the result to a different situation.

In general, the research provides a clear and focused analysis of the effect of expectation and perception whichinterpret by the existence of gap to customer satisfaction at the optical industry in Indonesia. The task was to identifytheir expectation and perception about the quality service and patterns of belief that help the researchers to reply tothe research question. The result confirmed that the responsiveness dimension of SERVQUAL could be used, but theassurance and reliability dimension cannot be used in defining customer satisfaction. Solely to identify the importanceof each service is not enough to uncover customer satisfaction, knowing the roles of product quality also essential inthis particular industry. Altogether, this research hopes to contribute to finding customer satisfaction on the optical

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retail and offer some areas for further discussion and research in order to prevent issues of service quality in Indonesia.For conclusion, the gap doesn’t contribute much to the level of customer satisfaction. The optical retail has it’s

on factor on defining customer satisfaction. No matter the result of the gap, the customer can still describe they feelsatisfied. For example, a customer comes to the optical store and gets a promise that there eyewear within three days.But then, some delivery problems intervening the process and appear that the result will be late for a week. Hence atthe end, the customer still has their eyewear with the same product quality. Thus, the customer can again define theyare satisfied with the result.

LIMITATIONS

Customer expectations and perceptions are volatile and subjective. Thus, the outcome can be assumed only toa given period and should not be willingly used for generalization within non-similar settings of organization. Along-term study could probably mitigate this limitation. The study also restricted to the Indonesian scenario and opticalretail as the main point. This study also bounds itself with only three dimensions of SERVQUAL and does not covermixed service-merchandise and other formats that exist in the retail sector.

The result illustrates that the optical industry can at least assess three dimensions of SERVQUAL to confirmthe level of service provided, and determine which aspects need enhancement. To improve service quality in futurestudies, it is required to Asses’ service experiences from the employee overview. Because similar to the customers, theemployee also plays a role in judging the quality of internal service. On this case, the only two positive things fromthe indicators were giving prompt service and speed to a customer complaint. With the information, optical retail caninterpret the other level of service performance on each sign and make improvements.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH

Experiencing how the customer perceives the service quality quantitatively and qualitatively give a great benefitto the optical industry. The result can provide specific data that can be used to monitor and maintain quality service.Future studies should seek to combine the use of SERVQUAL and product quality to close the gap in the industrysimilar to optical retail. Also, the relationship between customer and employee will contribute to the level of customersatisfaction. Finally, the study of service quality is both important and challenging. Future efforts should continue togain an understanding of the measurement and concept to improve service quality in a different part of businesses.

For bettering perception and service system, the management can try to find a new marketing strategy that can helpthem gain the accuracy of promises, using updated methods to process complaints and assure error-free records. Then,add staff training to learn etiquette and communication skills to make customers more satisfied. Also, increase theoverall shopping experience for the customer by product offer and advance the employee credibility.

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